Xu EECERA 2016 abstract...in ECEC Through the Voices of Scottish, Hong Kongese, and Mainland Chinese Young Children. Presentation on the 26th EECERA annual conference, 1.9.2016, Dublin/Ireland

EECERA annual conference

Dublin/Ireland

31st

august - 3rd

september 2016

26th

Xu, Yuwei (2015).

Children's Needs and Teachers' Gender: Rethinking Male Participation in ECEC Through the

Voices of Scottish, Hong Kongese, and Mainland Chinese Young Children. Presentation on the

26th

EECERA annual conference, 1.9.2016, Dublin/Ireland.

Abstract

This presentation will explore how children perceive and react to male and female teachers in

terms of their daily activities and needs in ECEC classrooms. It wishes to inform about to what

extent and in what ways teachers’ gender might be relevant to children’s gender development

and/or wider wellbeing.

Research on gender imbalance in ECEC workforce is criticised of lacking cross-cultural analysis,

observational data resources (Rohrmann and Brody, 2015), and children's perspectives. This re-

search will be able to address those gaps. It adopts Butler (2004)'s conceptualisations of 'doing'

and 'undoing' gender, to unfold how children's gender subjectivity is socially constructed

through their active interactions with the social world.

Observations of daily life in 17 ECEC settings in Scotland, Hong Kong and Mainland China were

conducted, with a focus on the interactions between children and their teachers. A further con-

versational talk based on three pictures that present culturally gendered and non-gendered

teacher behaviours was done with each individual child after the observation.

Informed consent was gained from the principal teachers, class teachers, and children's parents.

Children were encouraged to give their oral consent before the conversation, and were free to

quit at any time.

The findings suggest that gender is among a wide range of social aspects that children 'do' and

'undo' to gain pleasure/fun in their interactions with male and female teachers. Those findings

therefore suggest that teachers, being both male and female, should be trained about gender-

reflective practices in order to cater for children's variable needs.

Keywords

gender, children voices, male participation, cross-cultural research, comparative education

Author

Yuwei Xu | The University of Glasgow, United Kingdom

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Xu, Yuwei (2015). Children's Needs and Teachers' Gender: Rethinking Male Participation in ECEC Through the Voices of Scottish, Hong Kongese, and Mainland Chinese Young Children. Presentation on the 26th EECERA annual conference, 1.9.2016, Dublin/Ireland.

Children’s Needs and Teachers’ Gender: Rethinking male participation in ECEC through the voices of Scottish, Hong Kongese, and Mainland Chinese Young Children

Yuwei Xu•∙ PhD Candidate in Educational Studies, University of Glasgow•∙ Lecturer in Children and Family Studies, University of Portsmouth

The project: Gender and teacher‐child interactions in ECEC settings in Scotland, Hong Kong, and Mainland China

1. Interations between teachers and children;

2. Teachers’ and children’s perspectives;

3. Cultural‐specific discourses.

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Theoretical framework: Poststructural and ‘postdevelopmental’

1. Gender fluidity and complexities;

2. Gender performativity and doing gender;

3. The power of gender discourses;

4. Gender as embodied social experiences.

ECEC systems in Scotland, Hong Kong, and Mainland ChinaCountry/Region Scotland Hong Kong Mainland ChinaMain types of ECECproviders(No. & Percentage)

Early Years Centres;Private Nurseries;Primary School Nursery Classes;

Non-profitable Local Kindergartens (874; 89.4%);Profitable Non-local Kindergarten (104; 10.6%)

Public Kindergartens;Private Kindergartens

Class categoriesInfant room: 18 months;Toddler room: 2-3 yrs;Preschool room: 3-5 yrs;

K1 (Nursery): 3-4 yrs;K2 (Lower Class): 4-5 yrs;K3 (Upper Class): 5-6 yrs;

Nursery Class: 2-3 yrs;Lower-level Class: 3-4 yrs;Middle-level Class: 4-5 yrs;Upper-level Class: 5-6 yrs;

Class size and teacher-child ratio

Infant: 1:3;Toddler: 1:5;Preschool: 1:8.Usually the numbers of children vary from day today. The teachers’ numbers may also changeaccordingly, from 2 to 5 or more.

Official requirement - 1:15;

Usually in the five schools that I visited, there areabout 20 - 30 pupils with 2 teachers.

Official requirement: 30 - 40 children depending onclass level (public kindergartens);

There are usually three members of staff in oneclass - 2 teaching teachers and 1 caring teachers.

Tuitions

Up to 600 free hours for above 3s;2-year-olds may enjoy free hours subject to familycircumstances;Parents can purchase extra hours from privatenurseries or some centres.

The Government ‘Voucher Scheme’;

High fees for international schools;15 years free education from 2017/18;

Vary a lot from public to private kindergartens;

Free kindergarten education in some highlydeveloped cities/provinces;

Teacher qualifications HNC Childcare Diploma or above Secondary Education or above

Language(s) ofinstruction

EnglishCantonese as instruction language;

All children are required to learn English andChinese Mandarin as second languages.

Mandarin as instruction language;

English is learned as a second language, but it mayvary from school to school.

CurriculumCurriculum for Excellence;

Getting it Right for Every Child.Guide to the Pre-primary Curriculum

Guideline to the Learning and Development ofChildren Aged 3-6;

Teaching Guideline for Preschool Education.

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Sampe 1: EdinburghSetting ED1 ED2 ED3 ED4 ED5 ED6 ED7

Type Early Years Centres Early Years Centres Private Nursery Early Years Centres Early Years Centres Private Nursery Primary School Nursery Class

Location South East South East North South North

Class level Preschool Preschool Preschool Toddler Toddler Preschool Preschool

Children

No. 18 Around 20 Around 25 14 /17 5-10 Around 20 20-30

Age 3-5 yrs, more 3s 2.5-5 yrs, more 3s 3-5 yrs, more 5s 1.5-3 yrs, more 2s 1.5-3 yrs, more 2s 3-5 yrs 3-5 yrs

Boy/Girl 9/9 10/10 Roughly half/half 9/5; 11/6 Roughly half/half Roughly haf/half Roughly haf/half

Ethnicity Scottish Scottish Mixed cultures Mostly Scottish Mixed cultures Mixed cultures Mixed cultures

PositionMT

Early Years Officer Nursery Practitioner

Early Years Practitioner

Early Years Officer Deputy Manager EarlyYearsPractitioner

WT NurseryPractitioner Practitioner Early Years Officer

AgeMT 46 58 33 29 48 38 45

WT Nearly 50 45 28 28 28 25 46

Working Experience

MT 9 yrs 12 yrs 1.5 yrs 3 yrs 13 yrs 10 yrs 4 yrs

WT 25 yrs 27 yrs 1.5 yrs 7 yrs 5 yrs 1 yr 23 yrs

QualificationsMT Higher National Certificate (HNC)

Early Education and ChildcareBSc Physics BA; HNC HNC SVQ Level 3 HNC

WT SVQ Level 3 BSc; HNC BA; HNC HNC HNC

EthnicityMT British White British British White Scottish White British White Scottish White Scottish

WT Scottish Scottish White Scottish Scottish Scottish White Scottish White Scottish

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Sample 2: Hong KongSetting HK1 HK2 HK3 HK4 HK5

Type Local Local Local Local Local

Location Central Northwest East West North

Class level K2 K3 K2 K2 K3

Children

No. 20 25/10 23 22 28

Age 4-5 yrs 5-6 yrs 4-5 yrs 4-5 yrs 5-6 yrs

Boy/Girl 10/10 15/10; 4/6 15/8 9/13 13/15

Ethnicity Almost all children are Chinese with occasionally one or two non-Chinese in the class.

Position All male and female participants are class teachers.

AgeMT Early 20s 21 Early 30s 26 24

WT Early 30s 44 30+ 30+ 33

Working ExperienceMT 2 yrs < 1 yr 8 yrs 4 yrs 2 yrs

WT 20 yrs 18 yrs 18 yrs 13 yrs 10-11 yrs

QualificationsMT HD HD;

Bachelor (ongoing)HD; BEd (Special

Education)HD; BEd;

MEd (ongoing)HD; BEd;

MEd (ongoing)

WT N/A BEd BEd BEd HD;BEd (ongoing)

Ethnicity All teachers are local who grew up, attended schools, and work in Hong Kong.

Sample 3: Tianjin, Mainland ChinaSetting TJ1 TJ2 TJ3 TJ4 TJ5

Type Public Public Private Public Public

Location North Sub-urban North City Southwest City North Sub-urban Southwest City

Class level Upper-level Middle-level Upper-level Lower-level

Children

No. 28 33 15 27 35

Age 5-6 yrs 4-5 yrs 5-6 yrs 3-4 yrs

Boy/Girl 11/17 18/15 8/7 17/10 17/18

Ethnicity All Chinese (including minority Chinese).

PositionMT Assistant Teacher Caring Teacher Leading Teacher Assistant TeacherWT Leading Teacher Leading Teacher Assistant Teacher Leading Teacher

AgeMT 25 23 20 27 20

WT Early 30s 47 27 26 Late 40s

Working ExperienceMT 3 yrs 3 yrs 2-3 yrs 2 yrs 3 yrs

WT 4 yrs 26 yrs 4 yrs 1.5 yrs 28 yrs

QualificationsMT Bed HD

Bachelor in Management HDWT Master in Sports BEd

Ethnicity All are Chinese.

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Children’s experiences with gender

• Trasition to the nurseries/kindergartens

• Building up relationships‐‐‐ Power relations

• Parenting

Children actively ‘playing’ with gender

• Physicality/bodies

‐‐‐ Sexualities and negotiations/challenges;

‐‐‐ Rough and tumble play;

• Gender ‘rules’

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Thank [email protected]

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/glasgowuniversity

@UofGlasgow

@UofGlasgow

UofGlasgowSearch: University of Glasgow

Documents

Xu EECERA 2016 abstract...in ECEC Through the Voices of Scottish, Hong Kongese, and Mainland Chinese Young Children. Presentation on the 26th EECERA annual conference, 1.9.2016, Dublin/Ireland